


Red-Eyed Bear

by JubileeHelix



Series: Bear Series [1]
Category: Total Drama, Total Drama (Cartoon), Total Drama Island
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 13:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15631710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JubileeHelix/pseuds/JubileeHelix
Summary: It's after Pahkitew Island's season. Chris and Chef Hatchet end up staying behind to take care of some unfinished business when some surprise contestants arrive on the island unannounced Chris decides to put the four to work helping them with their search.





	1. Set Up

_The child ran down the stairs of his large house, a huge smile on his face. The only thing that didn’t seem to stop him was the attitude of those who were round the house. One person seemed to have been on the child’s mind as he continued to run, more than happy to spend his day with said person._

_Despite the seeming determination that the child had when woken up, he stopped and even fell backwards. In front of him was a figure… a shadowed female figure, nothing seemed to let up the identity. And then the figure approached the child, angry and very much crying. A shaking hand reached out when a voice came for him and took him out of the scene._

 

“Eagle One, you there? This is Little Wolf calling in, don’t tell me you went and died on me.” A gruff, male voice came over the radio, the frown that was no doubt on his face coming through in his tone as he spoke.

“A dream. It was all a dream.” Chris McLean thought, getting up from a tree trunk, grabbing the radio from beside him.

“Little Wolf, calling to as if Eagle One is alive.”

“Eagle One here. What’s up Little Wolf?” Chris said into his radio.

“Finally. No sign of the Bear yet, how’s it going on your end?” Hatchet asked “Other than a nice nap?”  
“No the sign of the Bear. Not yet.” Chris answered

“All right, we should keep going. Little Wolf, signing off over and out.” 

“Eagle One out.” Replied Chris, putting down his radio in its previous place where he found it.

He heaved a sigh 

“All for this one Bear.” He thought, boarding the nearby ATV he brought for his search and drove off.

The setting right now is Pahkitew Island, which name translated to ‘Explosion’, if Chris got his translation correct. Letting Hatchet do the other translations of team names and getting them wrong he somewhat wondered if that was the right one. This island was also the setting for the most recent Total Drama season, and although the season was over and done with, Chris and Hatchet remained on the island in search of the aforementioned Bear. One very interesting and potentially dangerous Bear and that is something for a Bear. Both people that were doing the searching were pretty infamous for being cocky and loving a lot of danger. Chris McLean, the host with the most. Everyone thought of him as the main face of the show throughout the seasons. And hated by the contestants and would say that he got worse over the past three or four years that they knew him, although producers thought the opposite and kept him on as the host of the show for his over the top personality, or so they say.

Then there was Chef Hatchet. He was originally hired to be mainly the cook and only the cook, though he was ‘allowed’ to appear on the show as an unofficial part of the show for funny interactions between him and the contestants. But that eventually that eventually evolved and his original role somewhat ignored as he got more of an upgrade in a role and he couldn’t be happier being the unofficial co-host of the show. Some even forget that Hatchet even was a cook originally to be honest.

Thinking about it now, Chris thought that the two of them made a very good team together. He really did. These past four years that the two worked together, they really got close, in Chris’ opinion. Hatchet probably thought the same Chris hoped. There was even a time that they had previously shared together long before Total Drama, time notwithstanding, since it had been several years since their college days. 

Snapping out of his thoughts, Chris whirled around after a screeching halt of his ATV. Focusing on the area behind him, he narrowed his eyes. He heard something, he knew it. Getting off his ATV and making a motion to grab his radio and a special baton, not keeping his eyes off of the bushes where the noise and movements came from, Chris himself moved slowly towards the area. Pushing the bush with the baton revealed nothing. Chris breathed out in annoyance as he relaxed and walked back to put his stuff back on the ATV to keep on moving forwards. Revving it up, moving forwards and trying to clear his mind.

“It’s been nearly a week and I am getting jumpy over squirrels in bushes.” Chris thought “Then again, they ARE a bunch of mutants.”

Roaring the ATV to life, Chris charged down the path unaware that he was being watched from afar. A person gazing out of a high part of a tree, glad that they were not found at that moment, completely uneasy on what Chris’ intentions were with that baton.

On the other side of Pahkitew Island, one overly muscled and giant cook for teenaged contestants was having less luck than the other host. Also this one was not that happy on his lack of success that he was having. Giving out a grunt of frustration at a lack of results that faces the potential future of the search, Hatchet yanked back a log that fell in his path. The woods was more humid than usual so much so, that one could not call it a woods any more and more of a rainforest or a jungle, and that was severely worrying.

None of this was due to the machinery that was placed underneath the Island, that aspect was taken care of to insure that it did not interfere with the search at hand.  That part seemed to be working like a charm and nothing seemed to be getting in the way. A very good sign indeed, for now, but it looked like the search had to keep going until the producers need, or any case want, a new season of Total Drama. That may be guaranteed, since there seemed to still be demands for a next season. Hatchet thinking that they may have some time off before that rather than a week that they did have, especially with another show on its way to distract the general audience for a good month or two. Long enough for them to do this job and get a new season on its way into planning. That is, if the Bear gave them too much trouble for that long, that would put a dent in their lives and jobs, as well as potentially getting in the way of any upcoming season after the Ridonculous Race show would be coming to a close.

If they had gone and put the proper GPS and did not leave that Bear alone for more than five minutes, they would have not been in a situation like this to begin with. Then again, Hatchet was also the big proprietor of putting an ‘off’ switch for that thing and wondered why they didn’t put that one on that Bear in the first place. Something that Hatchet would like to bring up with Chris later on when they met up again.

“Damn that Bear.” Hatchet thought “Why in the world did we give that thing free will?”  
He shook his head in frustration and pressed forwards in the now humid woods. The search still seemed fruitless to Hatched, yet Chris still seemed insistent to find it, in fear of something bad happening. Then again, that didn’t stop Chris from putting the contestants in dangerous situations before. The Bear would probably not phase them, if the Bear behaved itself. That would be a very big if. Until then, Chris wanted that Bear tracked down.

A shift in the woods caught Hatchet’s attention of something not wanting to get caught. Yet it seemed to be a little small to be a bear making Hatchet more suspicious. Making his way towards the noise, being actually curious on to whom or what was there. Moving some of the bushes only to have whatever made the noise back off and fled into the woods.

The more puzzling thing about what ran was it was smaller than a bear, but bigger than a mutant squirrel. Almost boar sized but humanoid shaped as well. Hatchet blinked as the thing ran from the bush and far from their position.  
“That… was strange.” Hatchet thought. “What was that?”

So it looked like his search continued for something that would not run from the situation and at least not freak out when seeing Hatchet at least. If said Bear didn’t outright hate the two of them. Hatchet pushed back from the bush and back to the path, for lack of a better term, thinking on what the most logical place to continue to search for that most elusive thing, Hatchet thinking that he had a better shot at for success than Chris at finding the Bear, giving a look around his current surroundings. Some of the things that he saw were not part of the woods as far as Hatchet knew though. It didn’t take Hatchet too far walking down that path to get a message from McLean over the radio. Something that sounded pretty urgent when he spoke.

“Eagle one to Little Wolf. Come in Little Wolf.” Chris’ voice came over the radio, almost sounding like he was somewhat out of breath and grunting as he spoke.

“Huh, what is it Eagle One?” Hatchet asked “Did you finally find that Bear?”

“No!” Chris snapped back, frustration in his voice “It’s a contestant!”

Hatchet blinked. Did he hear that right? A contestant on the island? Then it hit him that so called ‘boar’ was not that in the slightest. That was a contestant, he was sure of it, and with what Chris said, it made sense to him. And one contestant that fit a squat sort of stature, close to a boar was one contestant: Max. Hatchet smirked as he thought about it.

“That little bugger is quite fast.” He thought “Then again, I did just stand there and watch.”  
“Little Wolf! Do you hear me? I said that there is a contestant on the island!” Snapped Chris  
“I heard ya.” Hatchet responded “I think I may have found a contestant myself.”

“What?” Asked Chris, more like demanded really being him, also sounding like he had stopped in his tracks to talk, and process what Hatchet told him a little bit better.

“Yeah, but he got away.” Hatchet replied, a smirk coming onto his face “I blame the Bear.” 

“Now is not the time for jokes!” Chris snarled

“I think it is. Now is the time to blame that Bear for this situation.” Said Hatchet

“Are you talking to Chris McLean?” A voice came from behind him. A familiar voice that sounded male and a little too excited to hear the main hosts’ voice.

Hatchet swallowed hard. Topher, the last contestant he wanted to see.

“Topher?” Chris asked with dread

“I saw Max, I swear!” Hatchet said in a strange sort of defence. It clearly was not Topher shaped, the contestant that he saw take off earlier into the woods.

“Porker?” Chris asked 

“I am not a porker!” Max’s nasally voice came, before he fell down from a tree.

Silence came from Hatchet and McLean as Topher and Max’s voices fought each other for dominance.  
“Let’s rendezvous back at camp.” Hatchet said, with some resignation, into the radio. “See you there… Little Wolf over and out.”

With that, Hatchet put down the radio, not waiting for a response with the assumption that Chris actually agreed with this one, and started walking, Max and Topher eventually in tow with the realization that Hatchet was going to leave the two behind.

Meanwhile, Chris McLean frowned at his radio. He normally was the one who ended the radio conversations, with a few rare, rude exceptions on Hatchet’s end. But this time he sounded defeated almost, more so now than anything else but still… 

Then again having Max and the wannabe him Topher fighting and demanding attention over and demanding attention over the radio can easily drain anyone to be honest. Also to be fair, at least he didn’t have Beardo staring at him and making him uneasy, Chris mentally noting may have to rethink who he let onto the show as contestants. At least Beardo made himself obvious to Chris, not like the other one that was currently following him, which he was sure was another contestant, his mind going to Shawn. The only one, well other than the giantess Jasmine, to work so well at being up the trees and mobile and one who did NOT want to be seen at the moment.

“Well, then. If you’ll come with me we’ll go and see Hatchet.” Chris said. “And we’ll get some answers from the three of you.”

No response came from Beardo.

“Like how in the world you three got here in the first place.” Chris continued

No response from Beardo.

“And to see if there are anyone else from the previous season here.”

Again, no response from Beardo.

“Sooo, shall we be off?” Chris suggested, spinning on his heel, not even bothering to wait to get a non-response from Beardo.

To his surprise and happiness Beardo actually followed him. That was a rare thing for him, as most contestants of the past would definitely not follow him, especially after what he put them through for the show and the views. This was pretty much his life to be honest, so he was willing to do anything to keep a very well-paying job that he loved so much.

So Chris was, at the end of the day, very glad that most of the Pahkitew Island contestants were fairly trusting of him at the moment, especially Beardo. That teen had the least amount of interaction of all things Total Drama and therefore did not have any clouded thoughts on the hosts and their actions that they had on the previous contestants that were there. Chris thought about the ATV and Beardo, wondering if the two of them could get on the thing so it could help them on their way to the rendezvous point with Hatchet, Topher and Max. Generally, no one touched Chris’ stuff, but this may be an exception, for something of an emergency. 

“How do you feel about ATVs?” Chris asked, twirling on his heel to face Beardo, who stopped suddenly not expecting the twirl.

Beardo gave him a shrug, Chris taking that as an ‘okay’, he was really hoping that would be an okay at least. The last thing he needed was something to go wrong or for Beardo to end up freaking out and putting the two of them into a bad situation.

“We’ll need to get going to meet Hatchet and the others. So you better be all right with ATVs.” Chris continued, getting onto the ATV. “There’s enough room for the both of us, so get on and let’s get going.”

Immediately jumping onto the ATV, there was thankfully enough room like Chris thought. He revved up the thing and the two were off to meet the others. If Hatchet hadn’t killed the other two off already, which would mean an easy law suit for the both of them if anyone found out, Chris could also admit that he wouldn’t blame Hatchet would at least get angry at the two of them at least.  
Checking out the correct points that indicated that he was on the right path for the rendezvous area Chris felt Beardo’s arms tighten around him as he was clinging on for dear life. 

“Okay with ATVs my gigantic ass.” Chris thought “The kid probably told me that to get me to feel better.”

Chris went and tried to steady the ATV, looking for a better path for him to take. There wasn’t too much of an option to take, as Pahkitew Island was meant to keep its roughness. Unlike Wawanakwa, this before it sank, was the one that was supposed to be the cleaned out Island and renovated to be an actual Summer Camp, as well as the one that was meant to be kept around for more seasons in the future. Unfortunately, it was sunk due to an oversight by two people and needed a new season quickly for a new season. Some convincing from Chris kept the above area of Pahkitew Island rough, but under the island was a different story. As some of the Pahkitew Island contestants eventually and accidentally found out, that under the Island was an amazing array of technical wonders and machines, with one of the contestants known as Scarlett took over said area with her own know how. Thankfully the other contestants put an end to her time of craziness and Chris shot her off of the island with Max. Chris wondered how in the world Scarlett was completely missed being thrown into a psych ward, admitting that she was pretty smart and could have easily thrown people off. A few jolts to indicate the paths were getting worse; Chris gave a quick look around and saw that the two were very close to their destination.

“Just a few more minutes.” Chris called out to Beardo. “So hand on!”

Chris revved up the ATV and charged down the so called path. It was getting worse to be honest, but the two were getting much closer to their destination, and Chris wasn’t lying about that. Although it didn’t take that long, the layout of the path made it longer than it needed to be; at least it felt like it to Chris anyways. But eventually the two got to their destination. Chris seeing no sights of Hatchet, Max, or Topher he gave a frown at the situation.

“Huh, they’re late.” Chris noted out loud, getting off the ATV, hoping that it would get Beardo off of the thing himself. “Wonder if those two are slowing Hatchet down.” 

Beardo taking the hint to get off of the ATV and to follow, Chris inspected the area again. Everything thankfully looked normal and in place, as small as the area was. It wasn’t meant to be a big production despite what on the party said for some of niceties for the stay. What was around the area was your basic campsite. What was there was really meant a good week food-wise and supply-wise. Two if they really stretched it out, but the duo didn’t intend to stay that long, especially with three unintended guests to deal with at the moment. Beardo didn’t seem to completely know where to go or what to do at the moment, Chris didn’t to blame him to be honest, as there was not a lot to do but wait. Then something then happened that alerted Chris that said that the two of them were not alone. Chris turned around to look at the woods with a snap. Something that he admitted may have been a little obvious to anyone or anything that would be watching and stalking them. Chris being thankful that Beardo was ahead of him at the time and didn’t catch on to his behaviour just yet. Scanning the section of the woods that the noise came from, Chris didn’t break eye contact  as he bent down to grab a sizeable rock, eventually settling on the thing in question was in the trees, the next move was to determine if said stalker was still in the same spot, or moved positions.

“Man, I’m getting rusty at this.” Chris thought, finally narrowing down the stalker’s location.  
Throwing the rock at what Chris determined to was the most opportune time, he landed a hit. A cry came out from the hit mark, telling Chris that what he hit was most definitely human, And the thrown rock was completely took said human stalker off guard as fell from the trees and hit the ground with a thud. That did get Beardo’s attention as he snapped around to see what fell.

“All right, who are you?” Chris asked, moving towards who he hit. Confidence not leaving him as he moved towards said person.

“How?” Asked a bewildered Shawn. 

“Zombie boy?” Chris asked back in surprise, stopping in his tracks. That made a lot of sense of how he kept hidden for so long, and for whatever reason, still surprised that Shawn was actually on the island with the others.

“It’s Shawn.” The teen replied. “And how did you find out about me?”

“I am a man of many talents.” Chris replied, giving an arrogant smirk as he spoke to him.

“Suuure.” Shawn said rolling his eyes, the sarcastic vibes clearly not at being hidden in his voice.

“Of course you got here first.” Hatchet said, announcing the presence of him, Max and Topher.

“Were there any doubts?” Chris said, turning to the three of them.

“Only because you had the easy one to deal with.” Hatchet replied, just then noticing a panicked Shawn behind Chris, looking like he wanted a place to hide from the much bigger man. “And zombie boy is here too? Great.”

“My name is Shawn!” He said offended. “And how many of us are there?”

“With any luck, just the four of you.” Chris answered

“But then again, we aren’t always that lucky.” Commented Hatchet.

Chris huffed and Hatchet shrugged. Both eyes met each other before Chris waved Hatchet over to a secluded area for a private conversation.

“All four of you, stay there. I mean it.” Chris ordered the teens as he and Hatchet moved to the private, off area to talk.

“All right Chris, what do you have in mind?” Hatchet asked in a lowered voice. “You know we should just get send them home.”

“Then again, they could seriously help us out.” Chris rebutted in the same lowered voice.

Meanwhile, the four teens started to talk among themselves, albeit very awkwardly.

“I don’t like this, not one bit.” Hatchet started.

“They can help us out!” Chris argued

 

“Or get hurt.” Hatchet shot back “Or worse.”  
“I’m pretty sure that Bear hates us, not those four.” Chris brought up. “They could probably get near that thing without getting hurt, if at all.”

“I still don’t like this.” 

“You don’t like anything.”

The two glared at each other for a few seconds before Max approached the two of them, with enough nerves and awkwardness to fill several decent sized rooms and kill some of the birds outside of it.  
“Um, excuse me? May I interrupt your conversation for a moment?” He asked

Chris and Hatchet broke eye contact to give their attention to him, giving the much shorter, squatter kid more of a glare than they fully intended to give, Max wincing a little bit at it before finding his voice.

“The four of us would like to know what is going to be done with us right now.”

Hatchet gave an annoyed sigh as he and Chris looked at each other and then around the current area around them. The place could just work for six people.

“You’re staying with us for the night; we’ll come to a decision in the morning.” Hatchet replied, pointing out the seemingly and very suddenly setting sun on small group “I may regret it in the long run.”


	2. Search Party's First Sighting

_Hatchet was a kid again. And he was walking down by a very familiar riverside, kicking a few stones as he did so. He knew that up ahead were homes that held very rich people, and he felt obviously very out of place there. And yet there he was, going to that place to meet a brother of his because he was finishing off a job soon and wanted to mess around with Hatchet when he was done. Climbing a small hill as a sort of short cut Hatchet found himself in a host of high priced looking houses and a couple of streets leading to various areas. The one that interested him the most was the middle, more central looking street. A quick jog led to the place that was his destination, where a small, almost lean looking kid, leaning on a brick wall._

_“Finally!” His brother said “What kept ya?”_

_“Hey Tane!” Hatchet said “Just had to do something for mom.”_

_Tane snorted. Hatchet rolling his eyes, knowing what his brother was thinking about him and the two of them were off as quickly as Hatchet came, soon enough they saw the streets filled with parents and their kids. Eventually Hatchet and Tane ran past what looked like a smaller looking kid. A very small kid to be exact, and he seemed to be huddled on the stares of what Hatchet assumed to be the kid’s house. He scratched at his messy, shaggy hair and walked up to the kid, although he didn’t seem to know why, Tane hanging back and observing._

_“Hey, what’s up kid?” He asked_

_The kid jumped up in surprise when Hatchet spoke. It was then when Hatchet noticed that the kid was bearing a pretty baggy sweater and was quite nervous when being spoken to._

_“Chris McLean! Come in here right now!” A voice of a woman came from the house, which he assumed to be the mom of the kid, and she sounded legitimately angry for whatever reason._

_The kid scrambled up and ran into the house, leaving a quite confused and worried Hatchet standing at the foot of the stairs blinking before he went back to his brother._

_“What was that about?” Tane asked, a tone of worry in his voice._

_“Dunno.” Hatchet answered, matching his brother’s tone._

_That’s when a very smug sounding voice got him quickly back to reality._

“And you said I needed my beauty sleep.” Chris said with a mocking tone.

“Oh shut up.” Hatchet snapped at him, getting up as he spoke.

Thinking over the flashback of a dream and how it made no sense for him to be remembering about that now. Nothing that he remembered talking to with Chris would have brought it up, especially something so vivid he could practically touch his brother. The campsite still had those unexpected campers that somehow managed to get onto the island, Chris McLean made his way towards what looked like to be the breakfast for the day. Oatmeal it smelled like, so something pretty basic to Hatchet. He stretched up and made his way to follow Chris for something to eat. Topher started to ramble on about something to Chris, who wanted nothing to do with it. Beardo was beat boxing off to the side of the camp, Max was looking over and potentially tinkering with some sort of contraption and Shawn was eating an apple in a tree. Hatchet still wanted to send the four of them home, but had the funny feeling that Chris wanted to keep them around to help out in search of the Bear. The last thing that should happen to be honest, as something can clearly go wrong at one point for whatever reason. Nothing about this seemed right about it, not one bit. That Bear was a wild card to say the least. Shoveling some of the basic tasting, if bland oatmeal, Hatchet heard Chris clear his throat to make an announcement to the five other people at the camp.

“Campers. Hatchet. I have something to say!” He announced “You four are gonna help me and Hatchet here with something.”

“Wait a second!” Hatchet protested, coughing up a little bit of his meal. “I did NOT agree to this!”

“I know, I just think that they can help in making this search for the bear a lot faster.” Chris said a little defensibly. “And besides, I still stand by what I said yesterday.”

“And I still say I stand by what I said yesterday.” Hatchet snapped back.

“Uh, bear?” Shawn asked 

“A mechanical bear to be exact.” Chris responded. “This one got away from us and giving the two of us a lot of trouble in searching for it.” 

“Was that why you brought us here?” Shawn asked

“Honestly, the four of you being here is a complete accident. We have no idea how you got here” Hatchet responded 

“This just keeps on getting weirder and weirder.” Shawn said “We were never meant to be here?”

Hatchet nodded at him, Shawn giving a frown in confusion at the whole situation.

“We’re gonna get you four to team up for the search.” Chris said, handing over a radio to Shawn.

“Why does he get the radio?” Topher demanded

“Because he is the most responsible of the four.” Chris answered “And the unofficial team leader.”

That was something Hatchet could agree with, as he didn’t know too much about Beardo at the time, and the other two were way too childish for the position. The next couple of minutes were spent on getting the four set up for the search, getting their radio set up, giving over a map of where they had been to already. Telling them that group should go over some of it once they were done with their area. Which shouldn’t have been that long to be honest, since there are more people to search the place. And soon enough, they were off in their different directions with their instructions. The roar of Chris’ ATV announced that he was off to do their own search, leaving one cook with own thoughts, lazily grabbing a few things that were needed. 

“Bag, jacket, radio. Check.” He thought

All there, the basics that he needed for a basic sounding search. So with that, Hatchet started his search, still having doubts about keeping the four boys on the island, he also had a feeling that may go nowhere fast in his search.

Meanwhile, a few miles away from Hatchet’s position, was the four misfits, for lack of a better term, were having a very shaky start to their journey. Topher was currently arguing with Shawn about who should have the radio and therefore be the ‘boss’, Max ranting on how evil he is and could use the Bear to do some more ‘evil’ somehow, and Beardo at the back, very awkward and not knowing what to do with the mess that was in front of him. The small search party was at full stop and nothing was getting done clearly. Beardo had that feeling that he was the only one that at the moment, yet took no action due to social anxiety stopping him from voicing an opinion. Until the voice of Chris McLean came over the radio, interrupting the arguing and the random rant from Max.

“Eagle One to Four Squad.” Chris announced “Four Squad, you read me?” 

“This is Eagle Two of Four Squad, I read you.” Topher said, taking the radio away from Shawn’s hand  
“Well, how is it going DIAMOND?” Chris said, putting a lot of emphasis on the word, Topher’s intended nickname. “And why didn’t Spade pick up?” 

“I’m taking over radio duties, because I have a more charming personality than Spade, and I’m better qualified for the job of boss.” Topher replied. “And we are doing fine, especially me!”   
This was when Shawn dove for the radio wrestling for the radio. The voice of one very annoyed Chris McLean yelling at the two, trying to calm down the two and get things under control, as futile of a mission as is looked like at the moment. It took a few minutes for the two of them to actually start to listen to the voice that was coming over the radio.

“Stop that! Geez! Have you four found anything remotely related to the Bear?” Chris demanded, clearly annoyed at their antics.

“No, we didn’t Chris… Eagle One.” Shawn stated “We’re gonna need more time.”

“Understandable.” Chris replied “Keep looking you guys. Over and out.”

Topher and Shawn only stared at the radio before glaring at each other, Max looking merely a little surprised at this development seeing Shawn as the more mature of the two and the overall reaction from the guy on the otherside of the radio.

“I thought he would be a lot more mad then that.” Max said to Beardo, who nodded in response.  
The other two getting themselves up and brushed themselves off. Max and Beardo walking up to the two, one a little more casual than the other. 

“If you two are done rolling around in the dirt, shall we be off to properly do our jobs?” Max asked in a joking manner.

“Only if I’m in charge!” Topher said with no sense of irony

“You can’t be serious.” Shawn said “You can’t lead anything to save your life.”

“I so can!” Topher shot back

The two immediately going back to arguing on who was going to be in charge of the group. It was then that Beardo was completely fed up with the two, and with one swift motion of the hand to his mouth, came a very sharp loud whistle came from him making the others nearly jump out of their skins and they just turned and stare at him in surprise. Max was the first one to speak of the three.

“Beardo has a point.” Max said, interpreting the whistle for what it was. “Arguing will get us nowhere. So, shall we get going?”

Topher and Shawn looking at each other, frowned, then nodded at each other but it looked to be temporary between the two, for the sake of the job that they were told to do, so it had to do for the situation. The sooner the better to the four and the job at hand. Going forwards through the woods to search for the mysterious Red-Eyed Bear, not fully knowing what will happen in the future, but going forwards anyways in curiosity.

And that seemed to be the only thing that really kept the four of them going for the long hunk of the day, for the last part of the day was full of frustration and some disappointment. And being quite tired for three-fourths of the group as well, who were not that used to being on the road for this long of the day. With no real end currently in sight, there was this distant knowledge of the fact that the group needed some temporary rest. Until then, the four came to a decently cleared out area. This was where Shawn dropped his bag, the other three stopping in their tracks wondering why their leader did that.

“We should make camp here for the night.” Announced Shawn “And continue tomorrow.”

With that, there were no real complaint from the other three when they dropped their bags as Shawn began to help out make a tent, or at least three fairly small ones. One for each of the three travellers of the group, mainly to not have any potential arguments pop up during the night between the boys. Beardo wanting to help out as much as possible, though Shawn said he as fine as it was an easy thing for him to do on his own. It wasn’t too long before Topher was looking at himself in a hand mirror and Max was grumbling something to himself, looking to also be writing something down in the dirt. Beardo eventually finding an open spot on a log facing away from the group took a bar from his pocket and began eating it. 

Though the trees, the sun was going down fairly steadily and slowly, giving an interesting red and yellow colouring to the sky and the surrounding. Clouds that were see able, from the sight it was fair enough to say that the night was going to be coming to the group quite soon, especially if they weren’t paying attention to it. Eventually the group disappeared to their respective tents while Shawn went to the trees for the night, the four finally nodding off to sleep one by one.   
Beardo woke up the next morning to see that the sun was already fairly well into the sky, though it didn’t seem too much by the looks of it when he crawled out of his tent. After he did, he say that Shawn was already up. Being Shawn, he was probably up at the crack of dawn. When Beardo was noticed by him, a bowl of what looked like to be berries in his hands, a mild surprise came across his face.

“I wasn’t expecting anyone to be up at this point.” Admitted Shawn “But I’m glad it’s you.”  
Beardo scrunched his face a little. He knew that it was Shawn’s’ strange attempt to make a compliment, but it still felt a little backhanded at the same time. Seeing that it was not going over too well, Shawn then handed over the bowl.

“Erm… Berries?” He asked

Beardo gladly took some from the bowl and had them for breakfast, Shawn of course taking some as well. It was only a good half an hour until the other two woke up. Much to the chagrin of the first two of the group, despite knowing that they had to wake up eventually for the group to get moving on.

“How long was I sleeping?” Max asked crawling out of his tent, rubbing one of his eyes.

“Not long enough.” Topher replied

“Do you still need your beauty sleep?” Max asked mockingly.

A grunt came from Topher as both Shawn and Beardo walked up to the both of them.

“You were out for several hours.” Shawn said, answering Maxs’ first question. “You two better eat something, it’s gonna be a long day.”

Topher making a face that indicated that he may be sick, due to the fact that he heard ‘long day’ and assumed that there would be some form of work that would be involved that. Max grumbled a little as he back into his tent to do a few things in there, grumbling on how it was too early for this kind of thing. When he popped back out, he joined Topher in grabbing a bar that was tossed at him both of them chowing down on them.

Soon after the four where searching the surrounding area for the Bear, agreeing to move the camp somewhere else if they did not find what they were looking for that day. Several hours passing and the four went back to said previous night’s camp for any sort of update, after a quick conversation the group had no real progress was made, so they decided to take the rest of the afternoon to continue the search as well as some of the evening. Topher and Max complaining about the job while Beardo decided to that that time to make an exit as Shawn was probably rolling his eyes at the other two and telling them to suck it up and to their current job. With no real progress being made that day they decided to take the afternoon to continue to make some sort of vain attempt to search for the bear and some of the evening. Topher and Max complaining about the job ahead while Beardo deciding to take this time to make an exit to do a little searching on his own, as Shawn was more than likely just rolling his eyes at the other two and telling the two to suck it up and to their job. For Beardo as long as he was on the Island, which looked to not be that long, he did not remember the woods feeling or looking this way since the last time he was there. 

Not all of it at least, with the pine, birch and cedars, that was what he recognized and had the feeling that these were not suppose to be here, despite him not staying on the island for all that long before getting kicked off. The things that the average person may agree when they think of a wood like this particular one, with one particular thing that they would think of when asked about the forest. That it would be colder at night than it was now. What Beardo felt at the moment was anything but cold, being something more humid than he expected, balmy even, some would associate with the jungle. And still no Bear. Beardo was beginning to think that it was not real. Which made think why the four of them were searching the island if it was seemingly going haywire for a Bear out of all things. If it was some ordinary Bear, it would not be such a problem in the long scheme of things, and on top of that the four of them would al be back at their respective homes relaxing and doing whatever they were doing before finding themselves here. A few crows spooking Beardo as they flew off in the opposite direction, the sun in the sky indicating that Beardo should take an hour or so to search before coming back to camp. So, giving himself that time that he thought he needed to do so, giving him no answers from what he noticed recently. With the afternoon seemingly wasted, he decided to turn around and head back to camp, somewhat hoping that one of the others found something useful or did something productive. But he had his doubts that it would happen with this elusive Bear. The loud voice of Topher alerted Beardo that first he beat him to camp, and had no luck in finding the Bear. Figuring that he had to rant to someone, Beardo hurried his pace to the camp to see that Shawn was also with Topher, who was ignoring what Topoher was ranting to him.  
Upon seeing Beardo, Shawn could see the sullen look on his face.

“No luck huh?” Shawn asked

Beardo shook his head, somewhat assuming that the other had no luck as well, otherwise he would have obviously said something. That was when Max stumbled into the camp looking like he had a very long and hard search, grumbling on how he hated the woods. Finding that he was being stared at by three pairs of eyes, Max immediately made an attempt to look presentable. 

“I have no luck in finding the Bear, how about you people?” Max asked

The three of them shook their heads and Max looked mildly awkward.

“Ah. Shall we get to be soon?” Max then suggested

“After a little bit of food?” Topher asked

The three others nodded in agreement as Shawn grabbed some things from one of the bags and passed them around. To the three who were not use to eating so scarcely, the bars didn’t last that long, as well as the sudden feeling of being tired falling on the four as they went to their designated sleeping areas. The next day the four woke up to a very big surprise, as when they got out of their tents, the Red Eyed Bear was at the camp with them. It was after a solid minute of staring at each between all present, the four boys took action and charged at the Bear, and to some surprise it rand. At the moment, it was a very dumb move for them to do. A regular bear was bad enough but the one that was being chased being mechanical was easily a lot more worse than a regular, living bear and yet they still chased after it, with the feintest of hope their set goal of getting it would be done as soon as possible.

It didn’t take too long for the four to lose the Bear, even at top speed something like that would be hard to lose in a crowded area like the woods, though bears in general having good speed when on solid ground. Being that, they didn’t want to lose the Bear this easily as they were on a hot trail to actually catching it, so a quick decision had to be made to search the surrounding area and fast. Shawn taking charge and telling the other three which way to go in order to better catch their target. 

“This just got crazy…” Beardo thought as he went down his hastily assigned path “Why in the world did we chase the Bear instead of calling Chris right away?”

Charging through the bushes as fast as he could, searching for any clues, nothing immediately jumping out at him, as usual. Wondering why in the world he let Chris conscript him into doing this as both he and Hatchet were more than capable of doing this task, or at least Hatchet would say so, not wanting or needing the help of the four. He was willing to give up this search until the Red Eyed Bear came into his sights. Again, the two stared each other down, until Beardo decided to slowly approach the Bear rather than outright chase it. The Bear didn’t move at first, just standing there and staring, more or less, looking him over. A few seconds passed before the annoying Bear turned around and ran off, Beardo giving a small growl, giving chase himself. The one thing that was stopping him and the other three from going home.

A few scant glances here and there of the sough out Bear proved the usual nothing, several minutes pass, playing what felt like a game of cat and mouse in the most frustrating way possible. It was when he was in a dark part of the woods when Beardo began to freak out a little, backing up from what he thought was the Bear approaching him in a threating manner. The red eyes were there, the size was definitely there, in his mind there was no doubt about it that it was the Bear. That was when Beardo bumped into something fairly solid, which he thought was a tall tree trunk. Until it yelled nearly a second later and the imposing figure that was in front of Beardo disappeared from sight and things seemed to brighten up around him to the light of the afternoon.

“You!” Max snapped when the two whirled around to see it was each other that they bumped into.  
Beardo merely pointed to himself, not being entirely sure why he did such a thing.

“Yes you! What are you doing here? I almost had that Bear.” Max shot at him

“Max?” Came Topher’s voice from the trees as he stepped out to be seen eyeing Max and Beardo “No Bear?”

“I nearly had it until this big lug bumped into me!” Max said, trying to make himself good.

“Oh please, you couldn’t catch a squirrel.” Topher retorted, rolling his eyes.

“We may as well head back to camp.” Shawn said, jumping into sight, making the others jump in surprise. “We got somewhere today and I don’t think we will be finding that Bear anytime soon. And plus, the radio is at camp.”

The four left in the direction that they remembered for the camp site being in, realizing how tired that they were after they dove into their running. Spending the morning and a bit of the afternoon in an adrenaline induced run made them feel that they ran several marathons, or at least one very long one. The run easily made their trip to their current location a lot easier than the inevitable trip back. Topher and Max immediately when they finally reached their camp, Shawn managing to find the radio and made the call to Chris.

“Eagle One, this is Spade. Spade calling in.” Shawn said

“This is Eagle One.” Chris responded “Spade, you actually sound tired, what happened?”

“We ran into the Bear and chased after it. But we lost it in the woods” Answered Shawn

Both Shawn and Beardo could feel the tension and internal screaming from the other side of the radio during the drawn-out silence that followed.

“Where did you four find it?” Chris asked, voice somewhat strained as he did so.

“We found it on the more eastern side of the island and it moved south.” Said Shawn, giving some more coordinates that were guesswork more than anything else.

As Beardo made his way over to his tent, passing Topher and Max, who were both out cold at this point. The one thing he wanted more than anything else was rest, and his tent was looking very, very good right now, so collapsing on the low end of the blanket Beardo immediately fell asleep. His thoughts sifting through what he saw earlier that afternoon. The next morning came quickly on what will be another bay day for the group.


	3. Lost Boys, Sudden Train Tracks

Beardo woke up to see that Shawn was the first one up, as usual. After that, the two found, or nearly found a lot was out of place on the island since yesterday. The surrounding area for starters was less wooded than they found themselves in yesterday, though there were still trees here and there. The air, they found, was a lot sharper and what the woods was replaced was more fields and run-down items were here and there among the very tall grass. The next to wake up and walk up to the other two was Max, getting the same shocked and rightfully confused looking face as the others.

“What…” Max trailed off

“I… don’t have anything.” Shawn replied 

“This is a dream. It has to be.” Topher commented now up and active like the rest.

Shawn only shook his head, Beardo agreed and Max was the only one who gave a vocal response. 

“I really don’t think so.” He said

Topher’s only response was to pinch himself on the arm and various other places in attempts to try and wake himself up. 

“We should pack up and call Chris.” Shawn finally said “I really don’t think we should be in the same place for long.”

Beardo and Max were the only ones who moved to pack up the base camp. Topher was still in some sort of disbelief about the situation. Shawn during the meantime was making the attempt to call Chris McLean only to have no luck, much to his frustration.

“No luck.” Stated Shawn as Beardo and Max finished packing up. “Looks like we’re gonna have to start walking and try calling again.”

The two nodded and Topher stumbled over to the other three. With some backpacks over the shoulders, Topher’s in hand in tow, the four were off in a seemingly random direction across the new field. A good ten minutes later was when the group made it to some sort of tree gathering. A lot less than what they saw the previous day on the island. And if they were being honest, the walk to get there took a lot longer than it did to walk through it and soon enough the four found themselves in front of another wide field. 

“This is impossible. Absolutely impossible.” Shawn muttered the obvious before following the other three across the field.

None of them remember any of their surroundings during their stay on the island the first time that they were there. There were some basic fields if they were honest, but they were small compared to the one that they were at, nothing on Pakitew Island indicated that a field like this would even exist on location. Yet they still pressed on across the field with a lack of too many better options that were presenting itself. Shawn again going about fiddling with the radio, just in case it decided to start working again for him.

“Spade to Eagle One.” Shawn said into the radio “Eagle One do you read me?” 

No reply came through the radio as usual, so Shawn decided to try someone else, in the off chance that it would work.

“Spade to Little Wolf. Little Wolf come in.” Said Shawn

This time, he was in luck, much to his surprise and happiness. Hatchet’s voice cackled through the radio in response.  
“This is Little Wolf. What is it?” Hatched asked.

Shawn noting that there was some surprise in his voice as he spoke. More than likely not expecting to get any other calls from anyone, other than Chris McLean.

“We might have run into a problem.” Shawn said

“What’s the problem?” Hatchet asked, his voice getting tense.

“Nothing is what it was since yesterday.” Shawn told him slowly, not fully knowing how to explain himself. Or the situation. “We are currently in a very large field that was previously not on Pahkitew Island.”

“You sure?” Hatchet asked “Like, are you completely sure about that?”

The tone that Hatchet had was one that came across as one that needed some serious confirmation on the part of Shawn.

“Yes.” Shawn assured

A troubled humph sound came from Hatchet, making Shawn completely worried about their situation and where they found themselves. Something big and potentially very bad for them.

“Keep looking. Something’s up.” Hatchet said confirming what Shawn was had suspected. “I’ll try and call Chris and talk to him. Little Wolf out.”

Hatchet shut off the radio and Shawn put his away. Looking up he was one thing that he did not expect to see since he and the others came face to face with the Red-Eyed Bear.  
In front of the group was a very long train track that curved out what looked like a very long, dark tunnel that would more than likely lead to nowhere. In the opposite direction of the tunnel was obviously, the rest of the tracks that led over what looked like a very long and deep canyon that was over a river for good measure.

“Tunnel, or canyon.” Shawn pondered out loud, though it was mainly for himself, walking from the canyon to the group. Who were not that far away from where he was standing.

“Tunnel. It’s not above a deep, deep canyon of doom.” Topher said

“At least we can see that we are above a canyon.” Max countered “And who knows how long that dark tunnel could go on for.”

“Huh, I’m actually with Max on this one.” Shawn said “Beardo?”

Beardo seemed to jump a little with the sudden attention that he was given and the question. So, it took him a couple of seconds to calm down, compose himself and come up with an answer. As well as he could in the end, which was mainly to walk up to Max and give him a look that said he was with him.

“Even Beardo’s with me.” Max stated, making the correct interpretation.

“Seriously?” Topher said in shock.

The three nodded and Topher just threw up his hands in frustration.

“Fine. Death walk it is.” He said defeated.

At first following the others, Topher then quickened his pace in order to be the first one onto the tracks, Shawn following him, then Max, and lastly Beardo. At different rates of wanting to get across the tracks of course, Shawn still had the feeling that this one day will be a very long day in the end. Why he let Topher go first alluded him at the start, what surprised him was the fact that Topher was actually going pretty fast. A lot more than expected, and that was an actual good thing in the long run, in Shawns’ opinion at least. The only thing that was disappointed Shawn in some way was the fact that Max was literally going at a snails’ pace and completely lagging behind him and Topher, causing Beardo of course to lag behind as well.

“And here I thought we were going at a decent, speedy pace.” Shawn thought as he and Topher charged on. “Oh well, at least nothing can go on this time around.”   
Looking around the place, it still looked like a canyon, tracks and very high places. The tracks continuing on ahead of them for what seemed like forever. Leaving Shawn to wonder if it was truly the right way to go. Then again, a dark tunnel may not have left much to be desired either. Both having an end, but both may have taken them all day to do and presented their own set of challenges.

“Yup, this is going to be a long day.” Shawn thought.

A quick breather later.

“Mind slowing it down a bit?” Shawn then asked

“Nope.” Topher declared “If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do this fast.”

“With Max and Beardo lagging behind us?” Asked Shawn

That made Topher stop immediately.

“You have got to be joking.” Topher said

“Nope.” Was all that Shawn replied with.

Topher turned to the other two and then shouted “Hurry it up! Max this was YOUR idea remember?”

“I will go at my own pace!” Max shouted back

“Let’s just go.” Topher told Shawn, who only just shrugged in response and followed

Topher motoring on as usual with Shawn following at a decent pace behind him, like the way they were for the past forty minutes or so. It felt like it as least for the group on these dang tracks.

“The faster we get off these damn tracks, the better.” Topher muttered “These things better not be the end of me.”

Shawn deciding to throw on his headphones for some music. Not the best for a zombie apocalypse, but this seemed to be a very good exception in his eyes, letting the words flood his ears.

_**Now and then I think of when we were together.** _

_**Like when you said you felt so happy you could die.** _

_**Told myself you were right for me.** _

This one made him think of him and Jasmine, a little bit at least. Well, at one point of their relationship at least.

_**But felt so lonely in your company,  
but that was love and it’s an ache to remember. ** _

_**You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness.** _

_**Like resignation to the end, always the end.** _

_**So when we found that we could not make sense,  
Well you said that we would still be friends.** _

_**But I’ll admit that I was glad it was over.** _

_**But you didn’t have to cut me off.** _

_**Make it out like it never happened and we were nothing.** _

_**And I don’t even need your love.** _

_**But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough.** _

_**No, you didn’t have to stoop so low.** _

_**Have your friends collect your records and change your number.** _

_**I guess that I don’t need that though.** _

_**Now you’re somebody that I used to know.** _

“Yup.” Shawn thought “Headphones are the best and worse things to exist. You can’t hear a thing. A real double edge sword.”

The four still going at their chosen places and paces, Shawn hoped to all of fate that something did not go wrong and the direction that they were going in was the right choice in the end. Until then, all they could do was to keep on walking until they hit the end of the tracks, and Shawn will keep on listening to the song choices on his ipod.

 

                                         *********  
 _This one was hazy, that was pretty obvious to Hatchet and it hit hard. So that was something that helped the situation that he found himself in. At this moment, he found himself in he was a kid again, like in the last dream that he remembered having. Same age, same setting. At that moment, both he and his brother, Tane, were behind his mom, sitting on the bottom stairs. The police were talking to his mom about something that the two had recently seen and could very well be important to a recent kidnapping. Hatchet couldn’t fully hear what they were talking about, but he did have a good idea on what it was. Them, the kidnapping, if the police could talk to the boys directly. But that was not going to happen at the moment due to the fact that what they had been through was quite harrowing. Hatchet was also making a plan, something that he felt had to happen that night._

_Then his mom closed the door from being done with talking to the police and started walking to the two of them. When she started talking, he couldn’t seem to hear them, despite the lips moving, but he knew that it was something very important for him to hear, almost haunting for him and Tane to hear for the rest of their lives. Or it seemed like it, as it for the life of him he couldn’t remember what it was at the moment._

Then he woke up.

“Okay, this was getting annoying.” He thought sitting up. “Why in the world am I thinking about that right now?”

Hatchet had set up a small base camp at an out of the way area of the Island. Somewhere that had little chance of not getting caught by the Red Eyed Bear, or anything else that was unwanted at the time. He wondered why in the world he was getting these repeated dreams lately about a selected part of his childhood, some of these were fresh in his mind from the previous nights he could really remember. The dreams only really started happening a couple of weeks ago when he and Chris started looking for the Red-Eyed Bear, so a theory between the two about the Bear having something to do had something to do with it. Then again, that sounded like a wild theory that needed more proof in order to prove it was true.

So, part of the test was to call in Chris for a check-up and ask a few questions on what is happening with him personally. If he was even up at this time of the day despite the urgency of the situation that they were facing at the moment. He grabbed the radio from beside him anyways and decided to call in spite of it all.

“Little Wolf to Eagle One. Come in Eagle One, you better be up right now.” Hatchet said activating his radio in tandem of talking.

A few moment pass and Hatchet was pretty close to turning on the radio again for a snarly comment to Chris wen a voice came from the other side.

“This is Eagle one, how’s it going over there Little Wolf?” Chris asked

“All right…” Hatchet started

“Bad dreams?” Chris asked suddenly

“Uhhh… yeah?” Hatched answered, somewhat wishing that he hadn’t phrased it as a question.  
“Huh. Same here.” Responded Chris

A brief pause came between the two of them before Hatched decided to be the first to break the silence and speak.

“Erm… wanna talk about it?” He asked

“Ya know what? Why not.” Chris said “You may regret that question though.”

“Just start with yours Eagle One.” Hatchet said. Actually finding himself not wanting to regret it much to his surprise. Not did he want the same from Chris.

“All right! No need to get all pushy!” Chris said

All Hatched did on his end was roll his eyes as Chris cleared his throat a little and giving a small sigh as well before he decided to finally start talking.

“I was a kid again in my dream.” Chris said almost sounding defeated.

This made Hatchet perk up a little in a strange way, while in all honesty it really shouldn’t have. Since dreams of being kids sounded pretty common, in some cases at least. This one seemed more or less catching his interest due to the fact that he was having pretty specific dreams and from the sounds of his response, Chris was having the same ones, Hatchet thinking he may as well listen and at least talk a bit.

“And I was not where I was supposed to be I knew that.” Chris continued “Almost like I was taken from my home and whoever took me was not one who had my best interests in mind, obviously.”

“I… same here.” Hatchet replied “Well, I was a kid too, not kidnapped, but at home and some police were talking to my mom about something me and my brother had just seen. Something bad.”

Chris just went silent for a few seconds. Mainly to digest what was said more likely.

“Huh.” Was all Chris said. “This is getting too strange. Have these dreams been happening recently?”

“Yeah, I have no idea why.” Hatched admitted

“Let’s blame the Bear.” Chris joked

The both of them chuckling about the joke for a few seconds. As awkward as it seemed, the chuckles dying down and the duo giving an awkward sigh afterwards. 

“Got any calls from the four idiots?” Chris asked

“Not since the last couple of times they called yesterday. Something about train tracks after a field appearing on the island.” Hatchet answered

“Okay, the train part is scary.” Said Chris “That Bear is getting more and more active”

“Yup.” Replied Hatchet “Finding that damn Bear is getting more and more important.”

“Yeah, we should get on that. Eagle One out.” Chris said, turning his radio off.

“Little Wolf out.” Muttered Hatchet, turning his radio off.

That did feel fairly good to get some of that off of his chest, Hatchet did have to admit that. He would have also made the joke about blaming the Bear for the random flashback dreams, but in the end, it would have fallen much harder than a joke than Chris’ would have. It didn’t take too long for him to pack up what he had to get going with the rest of his day. Not feeling that hungry that mourning to be honest. Just wanting to get a decent search in that day and a conformation that a Bear was doing some more crazy on the island, or at least to the island. Which made Hatchet uneasy to say the least. It would be only a matter of time before that Bear would do something seriously bad, not only to those on the island, but to the entire planet at large if they failed on the island. Hatchet noting that the Bear could technically leave the island at moment, making him wonder why in the world the Bear did not do so in the first place. Counting himself lucky that said Bear didn’t do that, noting that the Bear could easily be lazy. 

Hatchet started his hike down the chosen path that he was on the previous day, a little bit of a challenge to get through, but it was a place that Hatchet knew he should take, more or less as a path to get a good look over on the island for a precise look over. As the group did need to find a very important thing. Hatchet thinking that the trees may have been thicker than yesterday, but also mentally thinking that it could have easily have been his imagination getting the better of him. He hoped that was the case as he pressed forwards when he really thought about it, and he had to admit that he was fairly glad that he talked to Chris earlier that morning, despite it being about a dream out of all things the one thing he didn’t see himself talking about. Despite the things he had to go through on the Total Drama series since he beginning, and all the costume swaps, despite the protests, none of it stopping the ‘Host with the Most’ from having Hatchet do all of that, each one more ridiculous than the last. 

He shook his head. That should really be the last thing on his mind, not when he should be paying attention to his surroundings. A lot of trees, bushes, rocks, the occasional log that fell over and trunk that were there for a long time and had collected moss. Nothing out the ordinary for a wooded area. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. Some very normal woods for something that belonged to the planet Earth.

“Those four better be safe.” Hatchet thought mind wandering to them.

At least he and Chris had some idea on how to handle the Beat when they found it. And with the call that essentially said that the Bear was active, who knows what will happen next, with no calls from the group since the previous day told him that something bad may have happened. Bear or no Bear involved with anything, or nothing new to call in to report, Hatchet severely the latter was true for their sakes.

But why a train out of all things? That didn’t make any sense, at least not right. It may have been that the Bear was just warming up at the moment, that on its own train tracks weren’t that dangerous. Unless over a steep canyon or anything equally as dangerous.

“Humpf.” Hatchet said out loud. “Those four may be in a bit of trouble after all…”


	4. Train and Night

“You know.” Topher said out loud, spinning on his heel to face Shawn. His previous fear and anger seemed to have disappeared completely.

This was the only moment that Shawn bumped into Topher due to not paying attention to looking ahead of him.

“Huh? What?” Shawn asked, taking his headphones out to properly give Topher his full attention.

Topher gave him an eyebrow raise to an arguably confused guy in front of him.

“You never struck me as one to wear headphones.” Topher said

“It’s surprisingly calming.” Shawn answered “Despite them drowning everything out…. Which is probably why they are calming I guess?”

“Look at you, enjoying something for once.” Topher said completely amused Shawn only rolling his eyes.

“What is it you wanted to tell me?” Asked Shawn

“This completely feels like this one movie I saw a few years back.” Replied Topher “Kinda mad that I didn’t think about it earlier.”

“You were pretty mad earlier. And a movie?” Shawn asked

“Yeah a movie. You might not enjoy them, but I still can’t shake it off. The feeling that I’ve seen this before I mean.” Topher rambled “Just look at us. Four boys, train tracks that are on some way too big of a height to be safe and we’re looking for something huge. All we need is a jerkass older brother and equally jerkass gang of friends to be chasing us to seal the deal.”

All Shawn did was raise his own eyebrows, wondering why in the world the person in front of him decided now out of all times to talk about a movie in the middle of a train track. Especially if he couldn’t even remember the title of the movie in the first place as well as every minor complaint of not being chased by a gang. During this time, over several hundreds of feet behind them that should have taken them several minutes to catch up with the other two were Max and Beardo. Still slugging away at going with a very slow pace due to Max still crawling, Beardo having his patience being very much tested at that moment.

Nothing seemed to have changed at the pace of Max and it also looked like nothing was changing his mind for hurrying up at the time. In fact, it seemed completely possible to some people that Max slowed down to an even slower pace than before. If something like that was even possible, Beardo looking up at and saw that both Topher and Shawn had stopped in the tracks, more than likely assuming that the two of them were waiting for the other half of the team to eventually catch up with them. And Beardo played every mental game that he could think of to occupy his time for the past couple of hours. That included going over some math and a very single person version of I-Spy. Though he did think he saw some smoke behind a bunch of trees that were long behind the group. Out of sheer curiosity, Beardo bent down to feel the tracks to confirm his fears as another look behind him, seeing black and grey billowing smoke coming closer and closer to the group, Beardo standing up very quickly and with a very scared look on his face. With one very large shout in the one and only time that the other three would ever hear him like that, giving them cause to think that something was wrong. 

“TRAIN!” He yelled, getting the other two ahead to whip their heads to his position as his voice carried over the canyon.

The train’s horn announcing its presence and it officially moved its way around the corner into sight. Topher and Shawn’s faces losing a lot of blood as they saw it. 

“Oh shit.” Max said crawling faster as only an idiot would do in this situation.

“Move it man!” Shawn ordered Topher, who already started his run. Honestly not needing any sort of order or motivation to do so.

“Get up Max, damn it get up!” Beardo yelled very uncharacteristically, dragging the other sixteen-year-old to his feet. “Move!”

It only took a few moments of Max actually running only to trip and start crawling again to the dismay of one very angry Beardo.

“Shit Max.” Beardo yelled, getting down to where Max fell in a vain attempt to yank him back up again for a run, having some trouble doing so. “Get up! Run!”

“I don’t wanna!” Max whined, the other missing what he had to say next

Beardo turned around to see that the train gained a lot of ground, if the surrounding noise and motions on the track didn’t tell that in the first place, and was now very close to reaching the pair. The horn blasting away as it rapidly approached.

“We’re gonna die damn it! GET UP!” Beardo screeched 

And with that Max finally sprang up to his feet and started running towards to safety with Beardo keeping up with the other with ease. Topher and Shawn practically plowing ahead much farther ahead when they saw that a safe place to move towards was in sight, well away from the fast approaching train. Shawn sneaking a very fast peek at said train and its current location compared to him and Shawn, focusing back to running as he was before.

Taking only less than a minute to reach a good plot of land to rest at, Topher and Shawn wasted no time getting into position to whip around, seeing that Beardo and Max were still running and lagging behind despite the good motivation to go faster looming behind them.

“Run! Move your ass!” Shawn shouted at Max

“Come on! Run!” Topher gritted his teeth as he said it.

“Faster! Go faster!” Beardo yelled at the top of his lungs.

The train at that point was practically breathing down the other two of the team members’ necks. Pretty much drowning all of the yelling and orders to move faster as the scene continued its course. More horn blaring the usual warning to get out of the way, as much good as it could really do at this point if anyone was going to be honest with each other. Beardo only having a split second to move into action, when he saw the opportunity to save the both of them when he grabbed Max and flung the two of them off of the train tracks and down on some very rocky terrain as the train flew right by them. Topher and Shawn’s hearts freezing as they saw what happened on the other side of the tracks. Once the train moved out of the way, the duo ran to check up on the damage only to see that the others were only coughing from the dust that was kicked up. Other than that, they were unharmed. The hearts that were in the pits of their stomachs were quickly rising to their proper places. The four were quiet for a few seconds to catch their breaths when Topher was the first to speak and break the silence.

“Well we should have taken the train. Could have made the trip faster.” He said giving a small, weak and very awkward chuckle.

The guy getting a well-earned glare from the other three after he spoke. Only making the chuckling a lot more worse than it already was.

                                               ***

After several minutes of the four catching their breaths, they decided that they may as well camp there for the night. As it seemed like a better choice due to what happened to the four of them minutes earlier, two of them especially. The next morning started as normally as it could have been and for that they wished for. They woke up around the same time for once, going to their bathroom duties, ate and made their days game plan. Something simple and straightforward; keep on going with their chosen path, keeping off the train tracks this time around and updating Chris or Hatchet on what just transpired the day before, in a couple of hours maybe. Especially the train and the near-death experience that two of them found themselves in. With the quick meeting over and done with, the four decided to go on and start the long walk.

None of them really felt like talking to each other at the moment. The group having a very straightforward walk through the woods. Most of their morning was spent doing this as there was really not too much for them to do at the time, or even to talk about. The line was pretty much like it was on the train tracks. Topher led the way, followed by Shawn, a non-crawling Max and then Beardo. Much to the gratefulness of the other three that Max was on two legs rather than hands and knees, not holding up anyone that would potentially be behind him. The hours went by and the four kept on their hike. The sun though was still blazing in the sky, as much as it can be seen in the woods and the trees. At least it seemed that way to Beardo when he looked around from at one point, then it seemed like a blink of an eye it was night. He then blinked, stopped where he stood and looked around as best as he could. It was still the woods, the same one that he and the others were walking through just a few minutes ago. Except for the very obvious lack of obvious light.

It also looked like the other three stopped in their tracks to look around in confusion at the sudden darkness that they found themselves in, it only took a few seconds before the four decided to take action. Shawn whipping out the radio in order to call Chris to tell him about the situation that they found themselves in. During this time, Topher took out his flashlight first with Beardo and Max following suite with theirs. Mainly pointing them in several directions to double check their area to see that it was truly the same place they were previously in, minus the daylight. When their location checked out, Max and Beardo concentrated on Shawn and Topher. Shawn seemingly nearing the end of his update with Chris.

“All right, will do. Spade out.” Shawn replied, putting away the radio before looking over at the rest of the group. “Chris says that we should camp out here for a bit until this thing clears over. If it clears over.” 

The other three nodded in unison and pointed their flashlights in any potential directions that will take them to some sort of place to camp out and wait until the sudden night leaves. Eventually finding a place in the woods that looked like it resembled a path and took it. Only having a few minutes for them to walk down it and finally finding a decent place for them to stay for the time being.

                                           ***

During the meantime Chris was making a frantic call to his partner in crime Hatchet. Where he was it was broad daylight, which obviously made the call from Shawn that much more frightening for him to hear as an update on top of that there was a tone in Shawn’s voice that told Chris that there may have been something else that Shawn wanted to say but for whatever reason did not say it. Which made him a lot more worried than he thought he could actually get.

“Eagle One to Little Wolf. Come in Little Wolf.” Chris said

A few seconds passed before Hatchet’s voice came over the radio.

“This is Little Wolf, what’s up?” Hatchet asked

“Shawn just called for an update and it’s possibly a bad one.” Chris said

“Really? What in the world does Shawn consider bad?” Hatchet said “Zombies?”

A brief pause passed, then Hatchet’s voice came over the radio again with a more straight forwards tone.

“There better not be any zombies on the island.” Hatchet stated

“No, it’s not zombies.” Chris replied “The found themselves in perpetual night.”

“Not good.” Hatchet frowned 

“Nope.” Chris agreed “I told then to find a place to hunker down and see if this whole thing blows over.”

“That’s a pretty big if Chris.”

“I’ve got a feeling that this one is gonna pass.”

“If you say so.”

“Anyways, that’s the major update. Though I have a feeling that Shawn wasn’t telling the whole story.”

“Huh. You’d think that Shawn would be the honest one. Oh well.”

“Yeah. Eagle One out.”

“Little Wolf out.” Hatchet said, his side going out.

Chris put away his radio almost immediately on his ATV. Somewhere that was of course easily grabbable if he ever needed it for whatever reason, and revved up his ATV that was his best companion for the past solid week and a half, other than Hatchet’s voice that came over the radio whenever they needed to talk. As the ATV motored down the chosen path, his thoughts of course had to go to the past day’s events, what Shawn told him and what he didn’t tell him, overall frustration that the Bear had not been found as fast as they could find it.

“Is that Bear planning something?” Chris thought “That would be new. And worrying.”

He furrowed his brow with worry and anxiety. “Maybe I’m over thinking this. I hope.”

                                            ***

Back with the four, the darkness still loomed over them. Thankfully they managed to put up something that resembled a camp site, despite the limited amount of light the group had. Making a decision that two of them would prove light from the flashlights at any time as to not waste all four batteries at once, while the other two made the camp, making the already tough job go a little bit faster. Shawn trying to do his best in this situation, snapping at him and Topher on occasion to stay on track. Eventually the other two flashlights went off and the four of them decided to at least get some sleep, if not some sort of rest if they couldn’t drift off and wait this darkness as Chris suggested they do. Topher and Max made attempt to entertain themselves as best as they could think of.

“I spy with my little eye...” Max started

“Darkness. It’s darkness, it’s always gonna be darkess!” Topher snapped “Because we’re suppose to be conserving our battery power!”

“Oh God, shut up!” Groaned Shawn, tired of the argument and snapping from Max and Topher.

“Geez, sorry for trying to entertain myself.” Max said completely hurt and offended.

Beardo just gave a sigh that he wanted to keep to himself. For all that they went thorough several hours ago, one would think that they would be closer for it, but he thought wrong it seemed. So, he just closed his eyes and tried not to listen to the three others arguing with each other, as hard as that was to do. Attempting filter out the other three to focus on something else to listen to, despite what silence that surrounded them at the moment, it was almost unnatural when nothing else was going on he thought. What could be heard could be the occasional late-night sparrow going from tree to tree, crickets that came out of nowhere and even bats flew by the so-called campsite, Beardo falling asleep despite it all.

The next morning was full of daylight for the joy of all four, it also brought a very big surprise for the group, it started normally, as much as for what the four had experienced compared to the last couple of days. They downed some berries that Shawn found in the forest and after that the pretty much immediately made their way to clean up the camp to move out. It was when the four decided to take a few minutes to chat when they saw it. The Bear was the one thing that the four mostly talked about, the one thing that they were looking for the past couple of days, potentially staring them down and analyzing them. Something that was quite worrying to the group in all honesty. Until it showed up a second time in front of them in a few days.

“Radio first.” Shawn suggested first

“We should try and catch the Bear first.” Topher said

“Are you crazy?” Said Shawn “It’s a Bear, a mechanical Bear, but still a dangerous one.”

“There are four of us and one of it.” Pointed out Topher “I say we go for it.”

“Well whatever we do we should we have to do it fast. That Bear does not have infinite patience.” 

Max said. Both he and Beardo the only two ones who hadn’t taken their eyes off of the Bear since it first arrived.

Beardo glared at the three as they devolved into an argument about their next move. Max being the only one that hade a major point of the three, surprisingly. The first thing that Beardo did after having enough of the arguing, was the dumbest thing in his sixteen years of life. He ran at the Bear. At first the three teammates didn’t notice what he was doing at first, until he was clear from the group, the others finally yelling at him to get back at the group and safety. Beardo eventually tuning out the three others out as he got closer to the Bear. When he finally got several feet to the Bear, it opened its mouth and roared, and that was it. A small bit of red colour light ‘hit’ Beardo and that was it for what he saw if his current position and his teammates, the last thing he heard of them was scared screams.


	5. Beardo Alone? Final Confrontation

When Beardo opened his eyes, he found himself on a beach. Looking around he saw that there was a forest to his left with the ocean to his right. Blinking, he just stood there trying to get his thoughts together to plan the next move. The last thing he remembered seeing was the Bear, that he was sure of, trying to retrace his steps.

“Okay.” He thought “I ran at the Bear. Mistake number one. He roared at me and light came out of his mouth...”

He breathed up in, then out, trying to stabilize himself out and make sense of his situation and make sense of how the Bear did what it did. And it didn’t make any sort of sense.

“And now I am here and need to make my next move…” He continued to think, feeling the panic settling in for him, no matter how natural it was, he knew he shouldn’t let it take over his thoughts and actions.

Standing up and attempting to still clear his thoughts and made a rush towards the forest in an attempt to start looking for the others in his team. No doubt they were worried about his current whereabouts at that time. And there’s Bear that could very well still be there to do who knows what to the others. Getting into a run when he actually got to the forest area. At first it looked all right, but something else told Beardo that it wasn’t the same one that he and the others were in the past couple of day. Running through some of the bushes and huffing as he did so, only stopping for a few moments to make an attempt to get his surroundings more in bearing. But nothing made sense to him. Almost like he as in a different forest all together.

“How? That doesn’t make any sense… I should be with the other…” Beardo thought “Am I dead?”

He didn’t feel like he was dead, then again, he wasn’t sure as he wasn’t much of an expert on that subject. Wishing in every fiber of his being that it were not the case for him. That light that the Bear roared at him was the strangest thing out of the whole situation although the part of him running at the Bear in the first place was probably not the smartest thing to do when the group met up with it. His breathing getting faster and faster as he looked around his surrounding area. It just seemed to be out of the realm of possibility to reunite with the others, feeling like it would be a couple of hours like he could continue, a few hours of panic that he felt for the few hours of waiting at that spot, yet still wanting to keep on going despite freezing up.  Slowly and eventually, he got up, taking deep breaths to order his body and mind to calm down, he eventually walked himself into the forest, still having no idea on where he was, if he was still on the same island, or where the others were at the time. At first, he did think that it was not the same forest that he and the others were at the previous day, being the first one off of the show of Pahkitew Island not helping much in the long run of recognizing the island overall, only a few of the trees started to somewhat familiar to him, belonging to Canada.

Beardo still had second thoughts about this forest about this forest was the same one as he was in. His minding going through what happened to him earlier to get him into this situation, by a roaring Bear out of all things. It was obvious that this was not an average ‘mechanical’ Bear by a long shot. The only thing that seemed to be off was why in the world Chris would actually keep for teens around to track a very dangerous thing that could do a lot more damage to them then just biting them in the right place.

“This thing can teleport people.” Beardo thought, stopping in his tracks. Getting frustrated at himself for not getting what this Bear they were tracking for a full week. “No wonder those two wanted to find the thing.”

It really started to make sense to him, due to their urgency to find the Bear placed on them by Chris and Hatchet. Now he really had to figure out how to get to the others, since he deduced that he was in Canada. The problem was, where? It was probably east coast due to where the beach was when he opened his eyes, the next question to be asked was; was he still on the island? He better be if he stood a chance on getting anywhere. If they were in the same vicinity as each other to begin with. The only thing for him to do was to move forwards. The sun slowly moving in the sky as he kept motoring on. Sometimes Beardo felt that the forest ahead was getting thicker, only hoping that he was imagining it. Then he heard it. Voices. And they were ones that he recognized instantly. A grin came onto his face as he quickened his pace to get closer to said voices which seemed to be getting more and more anxious Beardo quickly noted. Jumping through the bushes in hopes that his teammates would be there, getting exactly as he expected. Backs turned to the forested area that he came out of, arguing their heads off about their situation, where they should go next, the annoying Bear and how Beardo was.

A wave of relief coming over Beardo as he saw the three others and the fact that they were really worried about his safety, as something that made sense, but it was also very comforting for him to hear about. Taking a few steps forwards to the group, wanting to say something, anything, but nothing came out of his mouth. As usual, he was the eternal quiet guy. Max surprisingly was the first one to turn around to see the missing teammate and the first to speak out loud to Beardo’s survival. Topher and Shawn were of course next to follow suite.

“Beardo!” Max cried out “Where were you?”

“You totally had us worried after that Bear roared you away!” Topher said, trying to make it into a sort of joking manner, only to have it fall flat.

“How in the world did that Bear teleport you anywhere?” Asked Shawn, the one question that was definitely on everyone’s mind at that moment.

Questions kept on going for the next couple of minutes, most were directed at Beardo and his whereabouts, others were general questions as to their general situation and where to go next. Beardo giving a questioning look to the other three as to what happened the past couple of hours that he was not there.

“Well, after the Bear teleported away, we just wandered around a bit while we freaked out.” Shawn started 

“Not me.” Said Topher, only to get a glare from Shawn, before the explanations continued

“A lot of yelling happened.” Max commented

“Yeah.” Shawn said “After the Bear did it’s thing, it just left. We tried to follow, but lost it after a few minutes, so we assumed that it teleported itself away from us. And after that, we started looking for you. As well as looking for the radio.”

“I still say that Bear somehow ate it.” Topher said, getting a few looks from the others “What, he probably did do something to it.”

“That’s what you think.” Max retorted 

“How else would you explain the radio disappearing?” Topher demanded

“It doesn’t matter how we lost the radio, as long as we find it soon.” Shawn said authoritatively   
“So we should retrace our steps and find it to contact Chris.”

Beardo was the only one who nodded immediately, Topher and Max eventually followed suite. The four going in the direction where Max, Topher and Shawn previously were the past couple of hours. Not having too much luck with four people on the job in said search. Not until a familiar sound came from above the four, instantly making them look up almost instantly. The surprise and underlying fear turned into mild confusion as the missing radio came in the middle of the group and fell on the ground.

“That’s handy…” Max commented out loud as the four stared at said radio for a few seconds.

Then, in a quick motion, Shawn scooped up the radio and immediately started calling for Chris.

“Spade to Eagle One. Come in Eagle One.” Shawn said in a rush. When no reply came, he tried again. “Eagle One come in, we have some information.”

Again, no answer came. The four looked at each other with worry. Shawn getting into the radio to call Hatchet.

“Spade to Little Wolf. Come in Little Wolf.” Shawn said instantly. With no reply, he gulped. “Not good.”

“No kidding.” Topher said

“Now what? We try again?" Asked Max

“We may have to.” Replied Shawn, shrugging at the radio mostly. “Chris and Hatchet almost always pick up immediately, if the one doesn’t pick up at least.”

Again, the four looked at each other with nervousness. Shawn going back to trying for Chris again with no luck, then again with Hatchet with no more luck than the first, cussing under his breath as he tried Chris. With the third attempt, it seemed to work.

“Eagle One calling in and here. What’s up? You sound frazzled.” Chris said over the radio.  
“Beardo… the Bear teleported him.” Shawn told him

“It did what??” Chris said, not only in surprise, with a big air of shock as well. Like it should have not happened at all, but it did.

“Um yeah… Is it not suppose to do that?” Shawn asked 

But Chris ignored the question all together and launched into something a little different.  
“Do you remember that rendezvous point that I told you four about a week ago?” He asked   
“Um yeah?” Replied Shawn confused 

“Meet me and Hatchet there, I’ll call him and tell him the same” Answered Chris

“All right, we’ll meet you there.” Said Shawn

“Eagle One out.” 

“Spade out.” 

Turning to the other three, the nodded in understanding and immediately charged towards the path for the rendezvous point. Despite it mat take them a while to get there, they were confident that they wouldn’t have that long to wait for Chris and Hatchet to meet them there. The four during the meantime they didn’t say a word to each other in concentration of getting to their destination, the sun starting to set low in the sky when they came to where Chris told them to get too. The three who managed to keep their bags from camp put them on the ground with a thud due to weariness when they finally got there, while Beardo just laid his head down on the ground as gently as he could on the ground, breathing out with a small sense of relief and attempted to try and calm some of his nerves. Now they just had to sit and wait, Chris being the first to arrive and meet them, Hatchet being a god five minutes later after that.

“I’m impressed the contestants got here first.” Hatchet commented, stepping into the rendezvous point.

“We’re not exactly contestants, not right now.” Topher corrected, “I like to think that the four of us are a little bit more awesome than that, after what we’ve been through.”

A simple ‘uh-huh’ came from Hatchet that seemed to be him not paying attention before proceeding.  
“This Bear is getting more active with it’s ability, with what happened to the four, especially Beardo.” Hatchet started “Chris, we need to find this thing fast before it does more drastic.”

“That Bear could be anywhere by now.” Chris said

“But it’s not.” Hatchet said “I honestly think that it’s powers are just starting to warm up, We could sill have time.”

Chris paused “Some time.” 

“Then let’s get going.” Shawn said, all eyes on him. “If this Bear is more dangerous than your average bear, and it’s just starting to get use to it’s powers again we can’t stand around talking right?” 

Chris and Hatchet’s eyes met as the four didn’t even bother to try and keep theirs off of the two as they made their decision.

“We better get moving then.” Chris said “This one is going to be one very long night.”

With that, the group picked up their bags and followed Chris and Hatchet’s lead more into the forest, despite not fully knowing where to start. And from what Chris was talking and acting, he wasn’t lying about it going to be a very long night. Out of all the people in the group, Beardo and Topher had the least amount of experience in staying up all night. The other four doing so for one reason or another. Shawn eyeing the two in worry as he thought about it. The group again going into silent mode as Chris took lead with his ATV, going as slowly as he could with something like what he was riding at the time.

The sun finally setting on the group, the final light shining through the trees and bushes creating long patches on the ground of the previous long day that would be put behind them. Tensions were still pretty heavy in the air for the group as they continued their journey. The finality of the light petering out for them, Chris eventually putting his headlights on for the lead with Shawn and Hatchet turning their flashlights on for some light at back. 

“It’s so quiet.” Beardo thought “Not even the crickets are out.”

Looking around the surroundings as best as he could, for any signs of a bear-shaped anything otr the very familiar gleaming red eyes.  But as usual, nothing was showing itself to the group, despite the sighting that morning. None of the anxiety that he felt earlier didn’t seem to want to go down as he looked around the very dark forest. 

“Chris and Hatchet better have a plan getting that Bear.” Beardo continued to think “Shawn may be able to able think of something on the fly… or already has a plan knowing him.”

He breathed in and out as the long night continued as well as the group proceeding to walk to who knows where in a forest that seemed too big for its own good. Like the previous mourning, the next morning would a have a lot more Bear than the previous week combined and a lot more determination to finally bring that thing down was growing a lot more than it had been.

                                             ***

“Don’t even think about getting away this time!” Hatchet growled as he and Beardo blocked the Red-Eyed Bear’s. Its own back currently towards a cliff. 

From the looks of things, the Bear seemed to be having some trouble using its teleporting powers since yesterday. That was one of the things that actually worried Beardo to be honest, wondering if something was up the Bear and how it could currently use its ability against the group right now. That was the first thing that they don’t have worry about the group right now. That was not the first thing the would have to worry about at the moment, just the other things that came with facing a mechanical Bear.

The two made their way slowly to the mechanical Bear with wariness and it probably felt it from it’s position and from it’s would be captors. Looking for ant wat to dash between the two to it’s freedom and the frustration of those who were chasing him. After a few seconds of the stand off, the Bear was the first one to make one quick movement, making a charge towards the middle of Beardo and Hatchet. Faster than either really expected, with Hatchet immediately making the first move to attempt to stop the Bear, only managing to grab some of the ‘hair’ of said thing in order to at least slow it down. Beardo followed as best as he could only, managing the lower end and only ended up at the Bear’s ankle. Eventually getting kicked off as Hatchet got a better grip on the Red-Eyed Bear to get it more under control.

“Call someone, we can’t let this thing slip by us!” Hatchet ordered, impressed with how he managed to keep some control.

Beardo nodded the group wasn’t too far separated from each other, but needed to still be radioed to each other just in case something did happen. As their separation was needed to search for the Bear in duos to keep each other safe and better together.  Grabbing the radio and nervously looking over at Hatchet doing his best to keep the Bear down, he opened connection to the whole group.  
“Heart to group, Heart to group. The Bear is being held by Little Wolf at cliff side north.” Beardo managed to say.

“Fantastic Heart, I knew you two could do it.” Chris said over the radio. “Diamond and I will be there in a minute.”

“Same here.” Shawn’s voice then said “Me and Spade are a minute around the corner.”

That news was probably the better news that Beardo heard, with as quick as they could be was admittedly better than nothing. Looking over at Hatchet with concern instantly showed that he was struggling to keep the very annoying Bear in place. Any sort of help was better than not doing anything, right? Beardo snapping into action, charging towards the two others, struggling figures. Jumping on the Bear with no real plan in mind, other than keeping it in place and not letting the Bear get away. Hatching appreciating the help, having a few doubts that the two of them could keep this up for that much longer. Until the two eventually heard revving of one very familiar ATV coming from the forest. Literally a few seconds later of the sound, Chris and Topher essentially came flying out and off a nearby bank and towards them. Beardo, Hatchet and the Bear stopping their struggle to stare blankly at the duo who were charging at them. A few seconds later, Beardo and Hatchet instinctively moved away from the Bear as fast as the could when they say that Chris pull out what looked like a type of gun, still charging forwards. 

The Bear on the other hand, looked at both Beardo and Hatchet as they pushed away from it in confusion, finally realizing a little too late that Chris was set on it. Firing the gun when getting into position, shot what looked like an unfinished muzzling, spiraling as it flew, and to the group’s relief, it actually managed to wrap around the muzzle of the Bear and surprisingly tightly if Beardo’s observation was right. The Bear reacting to the situation almost as quickly as the muzzle cam on it, pawing away helplessly, and at the same time making a bad attempt at escape at the same time. Chris dismounting and walked towards Hatchet and Beardo.

“That was too perfect.” Chris stated “Where’d your muzzle go?”

“The Bear ate it.” Hatchet said bluntly. “Gave us a run for our money until your muzzle came and put an end to any tension.”

“That was my best one yet.” Chris said with pride.

Beardo pointing at the still struggling Bear as it blundered around with it’s bad continued attempt to make his escape from the group.

“Oh right.” Hatchet said, like he somewhat forgot of it’s existence for a minute.

When Hatchet looked like he was going to do something about the Bear, a net suddenly came around it. A very angry growl that came out as an annoyed, muffled yell came from it as Max and Shawn came from the forest, Shawn carrying the recently used net gun.

“That was a little too easy.” Max said with the right amount of skepticism.

“No kidding, that Bear had a muzzle on it.” Said Shawn noting it, as the even more angry Bear flailed around.

The rest of the group blinked for a few seconds before Hatchet spoke.

“Gee, great catch.” Hatchet said making no attempts to hide the sarcasm.

“Hatchet!” Shawn said with some actual surprise in his voice.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Came the reply.

“Finally.” Chris said stepping forwards. “A little bit overkill with the net I think.”

“Uh… yeah.” Shawn admitted, glancing downwards, looking somewhat embarrassed.

The Bear during the meantime seemed to have given up on ant attempts to escape its current situation and just resigned to laying down in the spot where it was. The group eventually moving their attention to the now defeated Bear. 

“Let’s get this thing to base.” Chris said authoritatively. “So, load em up guys.”

An eyebrow raise from Hatchet gave Chris McLean all he needed to know.

“I was gonna help you guys, geez.” Chris said defensively making the first move.

It didn’t take long for the six of them to move it onto the ATV, despite the heavy mechanical Bear dragging them somewhat down. Not fully shaking the feeling of getting glared at by the thing as the ATV was moving, Chris going ahead, eventually talking the lead after some time. Knowing where he was going at this point, as luck would have it, the base was not that far from their current position. As the group disappeared into the forest, he was recognising more and more that told him that the group was going in the right direction and was fairly confident that Hatchet was on the same level as he was in getting the rest of the group there, mentally admitting that he may have gone a little bit too fast compared to the walking group. The group itself hearing the ATV keep on going for a few minutes until it eventually stopped.

When the group finally caught up with Chris, he was sitting on the ATV in a relaxed position, completely ignoring the glaring looks from the Red-Eyed Bear. Looking up at the group, he gave a smirk and hopped off of the ATV in order to help out with moving the Bear a second time, and onto a very large helicopter. The group silently worked as the four boys of the group finally got a better look of the island. Everything seemed to back to normal since the Bear’s teleporting shenanigans, for lack of a better term. Getting the full look of things after getting the Bear onto the helicopter, they all could agree that everything was essentially back to normal, as normal could get for the crazy place.

“All right, everything is back to the way it was as you can see, and everything else is ready for is to finally get out of here.” Chris stated to the four.

“Wait, quick question.” Topher said suddenly, remembering something he wanted to ask much earlier “What about our parents? They, or someone must have known that we were missing for a week.”

“Don’t worry about it.  Chris said that he took care of it… somehow.” Hatchet said, coming up from behind Chris. Not believing what he was saying. Chris merely shooting Hatchet an ‘of course I took care of it look’.

The four looked at each other, mirroring the same worried look. 

“Anyways, get on the helicopter, we gotta get you four boys home.” Hatchet said, he and Chris turning towards it.

The four following with no real argument. The inside of the copter looked basic enough, nothing to fancy, surprisingly roomy compared to the one that they arrived onto the island the first time around, the boys taking a seat. The silence between them was cuttable as Hatchet told Chris that they were good to go. Analyzing their faces, some actual concern came across his face, although he didn’t want to admit that he felt It from time to time. He half expected at least two of the four to be animated, or be arguing a bit at least. 

The helicopter jumbled around indicating that it took off into the air as he moved towards the back to grab something. Hatchet taking out some jerky he happened to take with him for the search and downed it fairly quick. Not fully realizing that he was hungry at all until after he ate something, checking on the four to see if they were still quiet and sullen. Giving a humph, he silently excused himself to officially sit with Chris as his co-pilot in the cockpit. 

“Those four are exhausted.” Hatchet said as he sat down 

“Even Shawn?” Chris asked

“Yup, even him.”

“And here I though Zombie Boy was made of sterner stuff.”

“He’s paranoid and prepared for zombies, not much else apparently.”

“You think that they’ll talk to anyone else about it?” Chris asked genuinely worried, Hatchet giving him a glance over the honesty in his voice. 

“I don’t think so.” He replied “Even with the crazy things that were on Total Drama, I don’t think that people will believe a teleporting, mechanical Bear.”

A silence came between the two as British Columbia’s shores came into view. Thanks to the tapes that the boys gave to the crew as auditions, the duo thankfully knew where the four lived. All that was clearly needed was time to drop them off. Hatchet regularly checking up on the four as they were dropped off periodically throughout the next couple of hours. Hatchet being glad that they seemed to perk up when they came face to face with their families when they finally got home.  
It was when Max was dropped off and Hatchet went back to the cockpit, a sigh went over him that sounded like some sigh of relief to Chris.

“Everything checked out and the contestants are safely with their families.” Hatchet confirmed

“All right, let’s get out of here and back to base. We have a Bear to take officially take care of.” Replied Chris, throwing the helicopter into autopilot and turning back to Hatchet, the helicopter lifting off. “Shall we?”

Hatchet only nodded in response, taking out what looked like a key meant for a computer, Chris doing the same thing. Both keys were small things that had almost a hard drive look to it. And had a smooth, plastic stopper of sorts at where the two held it, that also doubled as something that should stop the key at a certain point. They made their way towards the cargo hold, the heavy metal door slamming shut with a foreboding ring. Both Hatchet and Chris stared down the Bear for a few moments before approaching with their keys. Hatchet opening up a panel near the middle of the Bear’s back, he was the first one to put his key into a slot, followed closely by Chris when the appropriate panel was opened. Both nodding at each other before turning them, the Bear finally shutting down.

“Let’s get you fixed up, shall we?” Chris said absent mindedly “Can’t have you sending anyone else to who knows where.”

Knowing that their actions could very well ruin a good thing. Or maybe just make it a little bit more manageable.


End file.
